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OneNewsNow.com reports that the study, which was released by Leadership Network and Vanderbloeman Search Group, looked into the budgets of more than 1,200 large churches across North America.

The study’s author, Dr. Warren Bird, said that the primary purpose of the study was to collect data on how various churches budget their funds in order to help church leaders make wise decisions with their financial resources.

"Not that it's right or wrong, but at least you know what the lay of the land is out there for other churches like yours,” Bird observed. “What kinds of things are normal in churches our size what are not? Not just in salary, but in benefits."

Bird also explained that the study focused on churches with 500 or more attendees, and that the reason for this was because “Most surveys aren't going to include that 2 percent on the edge, so we focus just on them, hoping to serve them so they can make wiser, better, prayerful, thoughtful, educated decisions."

The results of the study include the findings that:

Church size is the primary factor in predicting pastor salaries

49 percent of the church budget goes toward staffing costs

52 percent of churches spend 10 percent or more of their budget on ministries outside the church itself